The Real Reason Why Madeleine And Ash Left MAFS
Married At First Sight has been bringing the mayhem in bucketloads this year. And a carrier of at least 70 of those buckets has been darling Madeleine.
She arrived on the scene halfway through the season as an ‘intruder’ bride, paired with her MAFS husband, Ash. Despite being an actress (appearing on Home & Away for a cool 55 episodes), Madeleine was introduced as a ‘medium’ and immediately dialled in her spiritual buddies and spoke to them throughout her marriage.
Ash, to his credit, took it like a champ. He was visibly freaked out but was polite and respectful towards his MAFS wife as she took him on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, dropping the L-bomb at the altar and interrogating him as to whether he was dodgy at a deb ball.
@itspunkee Perfect television. No notes. #mafs #mafsaustralia #marriedatfirstsight ♬ original sound – Punkee
Absolutely no one could deny that Madeleine made for excellent television. You could never predict what she was going to say, so when you chucked her in dramatic dinner parties and confronting commitment ceremonies the rogue comments were extra entertaining.
Which is why it was such a giant disappointment when Madeleine disappeared from Married At First Sight.
Why did Madeleine leave MAFS?
In their first commitment ceremony, Madeleine and Ash took to the couch and seemed open to making things work but then Maddie shocked the room when she decided to vote ‘leave’. It was particularly surprising to Ash, who had just voted to ‘stay’ in the experiment with her.
Fast forward to the next episode of Married At First Sight, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene, Ash admitted to the camera that he’d made a mistake and should have voted ‘leave’, and that he and Maddie had a conversation where they had decided together to leave the show.
We saw Ash packing up his bags and getting in the elevator to scoot off the show, but there was not a peep from Madeleine.
@itspunkee No note? No wave? No NOTHING?! #mafs #mafsaustralia #marriedatfirstsight ♬ original sound – Punkee
Thanks to an insider sharing the goss with Yahoo Lifestyle, we now know what actually went down with Madeleine’s departure – and apparently there was “was a lot more” behind their goodbye.
The insider said: “Madeleine’s erratic behaviour had raised quite a few eyebrows during her first week on the show, with no one quite sure if she was acting or it was real. After Ash wrote to stay – she point blank said to producers she refused to carry on with the experiment and was going home.”
It’s fairly commonplace for contestants to threaten to leave, but as production have gotten better at caring for their talent, it seems that producers made the call to let Madeleine go as she wished saying they, “did not want to dramatise it, and felt it was easier to let them go quickly and quietly”.
“It’s not uncommon for participants to threaten to quit like this and no one can be held against their will, with producers then tasked with talking them around to continue with the experiment,” the insider told Yahoo Lifestyle. “Yet with Madeleine, it felt easier to let her go as questions about her state of mind with the pressure of the experiment had already been raised by other cast members and crew. ESA producers [Endemol Shine Australia] will never compromise their duty of care for the sake of content or storylines.”
Image credit: Nine + Punkee